It's a small world

This Concert Uke came in from the wife of the customer that I am building the classical for. There was a large crack about 6 inches long. The only thing that stopped it from getting bigger was a brace on the top. I think this is humidity (or lack of) related, although it looked like there had been some trauma. The uke had sat long enough for one side of the split to move over the other (like platectonics yo!)so I was unable to push the two sides back together.















The way to handle this is to remove enough wood to place a splint in the empty space. Luckily I had some Koa scraps on hand.
Here's the early results:

After this it's just a matter of leveling the spline and blending the lacquer. You can still see where the repair was done but I think it came out nicely. Happy to see this little guy back into playing condition.

In Action!

Just wanted to post a couple of pics from last night at Victrola. Two of my guitars were in action. Me on the acoustic, and the electric with it's owner. I broke a string and luckily was able to play the electric (fortunately also in open G tuning) for the rest of my rare set. Kinda neat to get that opportunity.

Finished with the binding

An update on the classical. Binding is done, I am now preparing the fingerboard for inlays and gluing, fret slots have been cut. The wood binding was interesting. I've always used plastic/ivoroid before which you can just bend into shape, but the wood binding must be bent on the iron. I love this simple tight job, it just looks clean. One of these days I'd love to do abalone purfling, but look at a vintage Gibson j-45 or that 59 Epiphone. The beauty is in the simplicity.

What a beauty!

Sometimes, there are moments that eating all this dust is so worthwhile. Getting a chance to work on a little sweetheart like this is one of those moments.

1959 Epiphone FT-45 Cortez. Original price tag in the case, and aside from a little lacquer checking and previous repairs in very good shape. Whoever did the previous setup had no idea how to make a saddle. It was WAY tall and not intonated at all (see photo). Neck was in wonderful shape so all it really needed was a setup and to basically make a saddle. Plays and sounds very sweet. Better projection and bass notes than I expected for a guitar this size...

So I slapped the back on this guy (actually careful hours of precision fit up) and have installed the end graft inlay. It ties into the decorative strip in the back and into the binding design. Today I start on the binding process.

Classical Update

Just a little update on the Classical. The top is glued on to the sides as is the neck. Neat thing about classicals is that there are actually slits in the neck heel block for the sides to go into. Also shown is the back with it's newly inlayed purfling strip and now fully braced. The rest of today should involve prepping the sides to recieve the back. It's moving right along!

Current project

This is my current project. A clasical guitar in a Hauser style. Some general pics of where I'm at...

Telecaster/SG hybrid

This commission was a really fun project designed by myself and the new owner. We wanted to go simple and working class but with some nice unobtrusive elements. What we came up with was this basic Tele design with SG like contours, with the back belly contour more like a strat. It's packin a fralin p-92 in the neck position and Ghost saddle pickups w/ an acoustiphonic preamp. Very unique sounding guitar, and I was pleasantly surprised how cool the Ghosts were. Customer service at Graphtech is superb too.

My customer doesn't like candy coated guitars so I decided to use shellac and leave it almost satin. No pore filler so that the grain definition was entirely visible. The neck is also unique, in that it is wider to accommodate big hands and easier single note playing. It's not quite as wide as the warmoth "super-wide".

Heres the specs:

-Mahogany body
-Maple neck w/ ebony fretboard
-Gotoh vintage locking tuners (cool!)
-Fralin p-92 neck, Ghost saddles bridge
-acoustiphonic pre-amp
-walnut stain w/ a sprayed shellac finish
-warmoth vintage wide spaced strat bridge

This little guy was a commision for a young lady who is a gentle strummer. Perfect size guitar for her, without the booming bass of a dreadnought. It is roughly a copy of a Martin OM style guitar. Fun guitar to make and to play.

I really like the Tor-tis pickguards a lot, which is what I put on here. Other than that it's a pretty basic working-mans kinda guitar. All business!

I will be making more of this style in the future. A very nice complement to owning a dread, but still more of a performing guitar than a parlor. Although I do love parlors too...

the specs:

-Sitka Spruce top

-Indian Rosewood back and sides

-Rosewood bridge and fingerboard

-Martin style scalloped bracing

-Bolt on neck

-Ivoroid Binding

-Mahagony neck

-Schaller open back tuners

I promise, better pics from now on.

acoustic dreadnought

This dreadnought is a combo of ideas. Similar to a Gibson j-45 in shape, but very different in sound. This has a highly arched soundboard (around 15') radius and a heavier bracing system, based on a Larson Bros idea. The result is a very balanced tone. Not nearly as bassy as a regular dread but all the volume. Punchy sound with defined notes highlight this guitar.

The specs:

-Bearclaw Sitka Spruce top

-Indian Rosewood back and sides

-Bound Ebony fingerboard and Ebony bridge

-Herringbone purfling and rosette

-Ivoroid binding

-Mahogany neck

-Tinted neck to match the Rosewood

Electric Twang

This will be the first entry in my building log. This guitar is loosely inspired by the original Fender Starcaster of the 70's. A flop in it's time due the popularity of the 335, so of course I love it.

The specs:

Offset chambered Ash body

Gibson style sunburst finish

Triple bound

Gibson "Burstbucker" pickups

Birdseye maple neck

A fun guitar, but I would change a couple of design elements, and go with some different pickups, like filtertrons. I see another one of the same basic design in my future.

All Guitars all the time

Hand made guitars from Jeff Hoppe ready for rock action! Watch this space for updates on new custom made guitars as well repairs on vintage and comtemporary instruments.